Visit MyFootballClub.co.uk

Will Brooks, the founder of MyFootballClub (MyFC), and I met in April 2007 to discuss the building of MyFC’s website. MyFC’s initial website had been live for around 2 weeks and It was obvious that the idea had potential as over 5000 people had signed up to the pre-payment registration list. The client needed a two stage solution for the continued development of MyFC.

The first stage needed a payment gateway, registration pages and a communication platform consisting of a blog and forum. I, with the assistance of my old collagues at Blubolt, got the first stage live within a month. The payment gateway took £100K within the first 24hrs of going live (1st Aug 2007) and £500K within the first three months. 3000 people register with a payment of £35 in the first day and the site grew to a membership of 10000 by the end of the first month. The initial forum and blog generated 50000 posts and 3Million page views every month.

After the success of stage 1, I was then hired to produce stage 2 of the site. This was going to be the tool that was used to run the football club, act as a communication hub and be a social network to all the registered members. The site needed improved forums, messaging facilites, member pages, member blogs, proposal and voting facilities, member IPTV, member VOIP, live streaming of matches, bespoke administration CMS, secure and stable server stacks and a unique team selector so the members had the option to pick the team. The task was mammoth and we had until a club was bought to deliver a solution. I was responsible with building a development team to complete the site on time. We recruited 2 developers, 2 designers and myself to create the phase 3 site.

MyFC completed the purchase of Ebbsfleet Utd in Feb 2008. The site had been live for 9 months and had international media coverage all during this period. We had built the stage 2 adjunct to the site in around 6 months and we ed on the same day we completed the club purchase. The completed site went live on Feb 21st 2008 and has been growing ever since.

I have continued to develop MyFC over the intervening period with majority of the original development team intact. The site to date has served over 30 million pages, grossed £1.5 Million and is sponsored by big names like EA sports, Littlewood’s Pools and Eurostar. MyFC has been featured in numerous media stories (some featured below).

You can read my 12 month account of building the MyFC site here

Press

Featured on CNN

Featured on the BBC

MyFootballClub is aiming to take the power of collaborative social membership to the world of English soccer - Techcrunch

Unique takeover as fans website buys club - ESPN

MyFootballClub will be an intriguing experiment in football, business and online democracy. So intriguing that The Daily Telegraph has bought a share. - Daily Telegraph

Ebbsfleet United shocked the football world by agreeing to be owned by an internet-based collective of 27,000 members - Independent

The Web fantasy became reality when members voted in February to take over Ebbsfleet United - New York Times

Of all of the initiatives that I have been witness to in recent years, MyFootballClub clearly ranks near the top for the way in which it revolutionized the power structure of our beloved sport, putting us, the fans, in the driving seat - Peter Moore, President of EA Sports

The online bid for Ebbsfleet comes as many soccer fans are feeling out of touch with a professional sport that has become a money-spinning machine - Wall Street Journal

Online Democracy has gatecrashed the autocratic world of football - The Times

Can football fans have more success than baseball fans in guiding a team via crowd wisdom? -ReadWriteWeb

Ebbsfleet Utd ‘buzzing’ over Wembley final - BBC

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